Tmave pivo....

(nope, I do not have a recipe, but hoping there are some that might have tried to make a Czech beer with actual European malts and hops?)

www.themadfermentationist.com/2015/12/tmave-pivo-czech-dark-lager.html

Sure, ive made plenty. I love czech dark lagers. Im lucky to live in a place with soft tap water, and minerals not far off from pilsen. The budvar yeast, wyeast 2000, is my favorite for these. There are 3 strengths in general, 1.040, 1.048, and 1.057 ish.

I use around ~60% weyermann bohemian floor malt pils, 30% weyermann bohemian dark (or other 8-10L munich) 4% carafa 2 special and 6-8% continental 80L dark crystal (you could use more, but i like the drier examples) . I mash 131-144-156 with a double decoction, but you could single infusion around 152. Use as soft of water as possible for a 5.3-5.4 mash ph. I aim for 35 IBU total, and 1-1.5 oz of saaz or similar at 20 and 5. (A clean bittering hop at 60 to make up the rest of the IBUs) I use wyeast 2000 at 48 degrees. and lager for 40-90 days depending on gravity.

I think also there is a recipe in the back of the "Hops" book if i remember right.

I think Gordon Strong's recent book has a recipe for this in it.....

Lost Rhino, Ashburn, VA serves up a Tmavy.

the yeast is smuggled in from a brewery in the Czech Republic, everything else is US sourced

giraffe's recipe sounds similar to LR's

Thanks giraffe,
Yeah, two conflicting ideas of the mash came up during research. Same article said that bavarian malts are modified enough today they do not need a step mash, but article went on to say that first rest would be at 128F.

You have 131 and say that you could to a one step. Wondering if the extra work makes that much difference. Hmm.

I found the recipe in the Hops book. Good call. That lists double decoction, so I am assuming same 3 rest steps in general? It also mentions a whirlpool, but no mention of additional hops at that point...hmm.

Grognerd, that lost rhino version looks pretty good.

sablesurfer said:

Thanks giraffe,
Yeah, two conflicting ideas of the mash came up during research. Same article said that bavarian malts are modified enough today they do not need a step mash, but article went on to say that first rest would be at 128F.

You have 131 and say that you could to a one step. Wondering if the extra work makes that much difference. Hmm.

Click to expand...

I do 131 rests on most brews, its at the upper end of the protein rest range, and is better for well modified malts. (I forget the details at the moment, but there are several enzymes at work in the protein rest, and 131 targets one of them. Plus one, limit dextrinase?, is active at 131, but beta-amalyze doesnt start degrading.) I tend to think it gives better head and clarity to my beers, but opinions on it vary strongly. At least, I havent had any negative effects that I can tell.

For lagers I prefer a split beta and alpha amalyze rest if I have the time, its easier to control fermentability for me, and make sure I get the beer dry enough. It certainly isnt necessary, and ive made fine lagers with one rest. It just seems more reliable with two.

Fermentation has STARTED!!! Woo hooo....I might get beer. LOL. Wow did I mess up the brew day on this one. Third time entering the recipe into the zymatic editor...I completely forgot to put in the mash out. Sigh. Then at one point it was stuck, in what I figured was a loop, so I advanced to next step, not realizing it would skip the 10min hops and go to the 5min hops. Oh well.
Got it chilled, got the yeast rehydrated next day, fermentation starting today.

Now...how long? Three months before this can be drunk? Sigh.....

Ok, so I made this at the end of January, and I had it on my tap about middle of March..LOL. I was just a bit eager to get to this one. It was just pretty much wrong until the last two days.

Starting to clear up, my dry hop is coming through.

The problem....(What problem?)...the problem is that now I need to increase my keg inventory again!!! I have to have at least two of this recipe sitting and 'lagering' for reals so that I can swap it out.

I just doubled my kegs about three/four weeks back, now I already need more...LOL. Oh, and a chest freezer to store all my conditioning beers in, yeah, that too....